Young adolescents are increasingly at risk of HIV infection and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) resulting from unprotected sexual behaviors and needle sharing [1]. Prevention education is most likely to be successful if initiated before youth begin risky behaviors [2]. Developmentally appropriate interventions targeting 5th through 9th grade students may offer the last best chance to implement HIV prevention education before young adolescents’ attitudes and behaviors are solidified. EveryBody is a curriculum for 5th through 9th grade students about HIV, AIDS and STD prevention. Core topic areas include developmentally appropriate information about HIV/AIDS, disease transmission, antibody testing, prevention (risk elimination and reduction, e.g., abstinence, condom use), as well as the development and practice of refusal, negotiation and communication skills.

The EveryBodyä curriculum does not consist of lecture and testing. It consists of 24 sequential activities with guiding questions, step-by-step instructions, assessment measures and lesson extensions. Students act out the lessons and in essence, become the subject matter. Such hands-on activities have been shown to facilitate the storage of information to memory [3]. Moreover, EveryBody’s methods and techniques are based on such behavioral change theories as Becker’s Health Belief Model, Fishbein & Azjen’s Theory of Reasoned Action, and Bandura’s Social Learning Theory.

Formative research on EveryBody was conducted in 1997 in three ethnically diverse middle schools that identified themselves as serving socially conservative communities. The research found that typical classroom teachers felt comfortable presenting EveryBody and students enjoyed the program. With its simple, comprehensive directions and hands-on, experiential exercises, teachers reported the program to be focused, concrete and clear. Results also showed that students learned and retained important knowledge about HIV prevention and demonstrated desirable changes in HIV-related attitudes and beliefs.

Perhaps even more important were the findings that after participating in EveryBody, students maintained low levels of behavioral intentions to engage in the HIV-related risk behaviors of sexual intercourse and injection drug use. This was noteworthy in light of findings that students were more likely to engage in risk behaviors not addressed by EveryBody (i.e., cigarette, alcohol, and marijuana use). Also important was the finding of increased comfort levels in talking with peers and teachers about HIV and related topics. Such comfort is crucial because many teens know how to prevent HIV, but have difficulty negotiating risk-reduction behavior. By increasing their comfort with talking about HIV and related subjects, EveryBody appears to strengthen adolescents’ capacity for successful negotiation of HIV prevention.

This research was based on a convenience, rather than a random, sample and did not utilize control groups. However, despite its limitations, it showed that middle schools can implement EveryBody and potentially contribute to positive changes in young adolescents that can be empowering, and potentially life-saving. In addition, the strengths of this evaluation contributed to the selection of EveryBody as the featured curriculum of a five-year federally funded national dissemination project. Moreover, in the Fall of 2001, an outcome assessment of EveryBody will begin in an ethnically diverse school district. It will improve upon the formative research in two ways: by using a randomized control design comparing student changes across program participants and non-participants, and providing longitudinal data. Based on the scientific rigor of its design, this assessment should provide more definitive evidence of EveryBody’s merit.

Acknowledgments